Machine eoe forging nails



S. S. PUTNAM.

Machine for Forging Nails. No. 21.213. Patented Aug. 17. 1851i A di!! N4 Prrsnsyhmumognphnr. wm; c.

` named patent.

UNITED sTATns ,PATENT orrion.

S. S. PUTNAM, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

MACHINE FOR FGRGING NAILS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 21,213, dated August 17, 1858.

To all whom t mayoonoern:

Be it known that I, S. S. PUTNAM, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Machines for Forging Horseshoe-Nails and other Articles, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, making part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of the machine. Figs. 2, 3 and 1, details to be referred to hereafter.

The hammers A, are arranged as in the several Letters Patent granted to me on the 29th May 1855, and on the 9th December 1856 and are operated in pairs by a single cam B', upon a shaft C, as in the latter They are pivoted to the frame work upon bolts D, passing through the extremity of their helves and are thrown toward each other to give the blow by springs, which are arranged and operated in a peculiar manner for a purpose that will now be described. v

In machines lof this class it is necessary in order that the hammers may perform their work in the best manner that they give what is known among mechanics as an elastic blow. This may be accomplished by the use of coiled springs which are wound around the bolts or centers upon which the hammers vibrate and bear upon the hammer helves not far from their pivots. Such an arrangement of springs might answer a good purpose where the machines is run only at a low rate of speed, but it is entirely inapplicable where a high rate of speed is required as in such case an increased pressure is required upon the hammers at the moment they leave the cam in order to prevent them from bounding or flying ofi', and to insure their immediate falli, after passing off the cam, that they may not be caught by it again before they have come together; if the power of the spring were suiciently increased to accomplish this end, it would be too great for the force of blow required, and

would also soon destroy the hammers, and

on the other hand, if the springs were made to bearupon the hammers at a point farther from this aXis of vibration and nearer to the face of the hammers for the purpose of increasing their power at the moment when the hammers pass off the point of the cam,

then the elasticity of the blow would be impaired and as before stated imperfect work would result. To reconcile these opposing difficulties is the object of the first part of my invention, which consists in causing the springs to vibrate upon centers independent of the pivots of the hammer helves and sufficiently far removed therefrom to cause the bearing points of the springsl upon the helves to vary according to the position of the helves themselves, so that at the instant when the latter are about to pass off the point of the cam the springs shall bear upon them sufficiently far from their pivots to throw them quickly together and prevent them from being again caught by the cam, before they have effected their blow; and at the moment when the hammers come together, that the springs may bear upon the helves at a point much nearer to their pivots and thus exert much less power, whereby the required elasticity of the blow will be preserved.

The arrangement and operation of the spring foractuating the upper hammer of the set will now be described. The others are similar in all respects thereto except so far as relates to their relative position and inclination and need not therefore be further described. The spring E, seen detached in Fig. t, is wound upon the bolt G, around which it is coiled loosely several times, its extreme ends c, passing beneath the set plate F, this plate may be set up to tighten the spring by the screw Z), by which means more or less tension is put upon the spring, and the force with which it bears upon the hammer helve is adjusted; this capability of adjustment of the springs is very essential as it is absolutely necessary that the hammers meet upon a central line passing through the aXis ofthe shaft C.

It will be observed that the position of the bolt G, which carriesv the spring is such with respect to the pivot D, of the hammer helve, that as the latter is raised by the cam B, the roller a, carries the bearing point of the spring out toward the end of the hammer, and thus at the moment when the helve passes off the point of the cam, the spring exerts its greatest force upon it and it is thrown quickly as required and completes its blow before it is again taken up by the cam. As however the hammer descends, the roller a, rolls back toward the pivot D, and

up to them by screws f. Thus as either the` at the instant when the hammer strikes, the spring exerts a far less power upon it, owing to the nearness of the roll a, to the pivot D. By thus hanging the spring upon an axis independent of the axis of vibration of the hammer and so placing it with respect to the hammer as above described that its bearing point shall be nearer to the axis of vibration at the instant when the blow is struck than when'the hammer passes off the cam, l am enabled to run my machine at a high rate of speed and at the same time to preserve the elasticity of blow required.

l/Vhen forging hammers'a're arranged to operate in pairs it becomes necessary that they move always in the same undeviating claim, and that they be not allowed to sag or deviate from this plane by any wear of the side pieces between which they vibrate, and this accuracy of action is particularly necessary where the hammer faces are indented with dies of the form of the article to b-e made, as the least deviation from correspond- A'ence of the two halves of the die will form imperfect work. To insure this end, the side pieces H, which support the hammer helves upon either side are faced with check pieces I, which rest against the helves and are set helves or their side bearings wear from use, the hammers may be brought into position, and caused to operate constantly in the same pundeviating plane, the slightest want of correspondence between the two halves of the die being instantly corrected.

The machine represented in the accompanying drawings is designed for the manufacture of horse shoe nails there being suitable dies in the 'faces of the hammers (not shown in the drawings) for the purpose.

For the more perfect land rapid action of this machine it becomes necessary that each nail as it is formed be out 0H the rod by the machine itself, for this purpose I have contrived the following cut off. The heated nail rod K, is entered into the machine upon a table L, and is held during the operation of forging a nail by the eccentric dog M, and fed forward previous to the forming of each nail, by the hand of the attendant, the dog M being held down upon the rod by a spring y (Fig. l).

It will be observed on an inspection of .Fig. l, that the pivots around which the hammers vibrate are placed at a considerable distance from each other and from the axis of rotation of the cam B. This gives a peculiar drawing motion to the hammers very essential to the manufacture of a good wrought nail; when thus arranged however the ends of the hammers require more room for their vibration in the direction of the nail rod and it becomes necessary in order to cut oif the nished nail from the rod, not only to move it to one side out of the reach of the vertical pair of hammers, but also to -catch and hold stationary the side hammers while the movable cutter is in the act of descending and returning from its cut, this cutter being so arranged that it shall remain stationary except when it is brought into action by the attendant.

The table L, is furnished at its inner end with a guide or nozzle N, through which the nail rod passes, and at its opposite end it 75 is allowed to turn freely upon a pivot z', on the top of a post or standard O. The nozzle N, passes through an oblong inclined inortise Q, in the frame work P, to the upper end of which inortise it is held by the spring cl, while the hammers are operating upon the iron as seen in Fig. l. When the nail is finished and to be cut olf it is moved to one side out of the reach of the vertical hammers and within range of the cutters, the side hammers being caught and held stationary until the cutting off is completed.

The side motion of the table L, is effected as follows: Beneath the bed of the machine is a shaft R, to which is communicated a vibratory motion in a short arc by means of an eccentric F2, upon a driving shaft C, which is connected by means of a strap G2, and a connecting arm wit-h an arm H2, upon the shaftv R, the connect-ing arm and a portion of the arm H2, not being seen in the drawing. The shaft R, carries an arm S, which is thus made to vibrate constantly up and down in a short arc whenever the machine is in operation, and through this arm the movable cutter X, is set in motion as follows: In suitable ways in the frame work P, slides the vertical bar Y, which is connected at its upper extremity, by the link it, with the cutter' lever A2, vand together with 105 the bar Y, is retained in the position seen in Fig. 2 by a spring B2, (F ig. 2) the cutter X, being elevated and ready to be brought into action against the stationary cutter C2. This latter cutter C2, is secured to the frame work P, a little to the left of the path of the vertical hammers and in such a position that when the table L, is vibrated as before mentioned, the nail rod shall be brought directly over it Through a mortise in the lower end of the bar Y, slides a short bar U, which is drawn in the direction of its arrow, and retained out of the reach of the arm S, by a spring V. Against one end of the bar U, rests the 12o foot of a hand lever T, which is pivoted at g, to the frame work, and on this lever being drawn in the direction of its arrow the slide U, is projected as seen in Fig. 2 in the direction contrary to its arrow and beneath the vibrating arm S, whereby upon the next vibration of this arm the bar Y, is caused to descend and with it the lever A2, and cutter X. When the lever T, is released it is drawn back in a direction contrary to its arrow by a spring E2, and the slide U, is retracted by its spring V, and the cutter is no longer influenced by the vibration of the arm S.

Before the descent of the cutter it is necessary that the nail rod be vibrated so as to bring it between the cutters C2, and X, and this is effected by the descent of the bar Y, in the following manner, the motion being so timed that the rod shall have completed its sidewise motion before the movable cutter reaches it. It has before been stated that the table L, is held in the position seen in Fig. l, by the spring d; against the inner end of this table rests the upper extremity of a lever L2, which is pivoted to the frame work at m. (Fig. This lever is connected with another' lever l 2 by a rod N2, the

lever M2, being pivoted at L, to an adjustable block O2, which is confined to the frame work by screws, e.

To the lower extremity of the bar Y, is secured a block I2, the upper portion Z of which as it descends strikes against a roll g, upon the lower end of the lever l 2 and thus as the bar Y, descends this lever is vibrated in the direction of its arrow and the lever L2, vibrates the table so as to bring the nail rod over the cutter C2. At the same time that this takes place a roll p, upon the block I2, strikes against the foot of a lever P2, pivoted at g, to the forked eX- tremity of which are pivoted two stops R2 which are thus caused to protrude through the frame work and to intercept the path of the side hammers (seen in red at A, in Fig. 2.) These hammers are thus held stationary clear of the path of the cutter X, which then descends and severs the nail from the rod. The lever T, being then released the bar U, vis drawn back by its spring V,-the stops R2, are withdrawn by the spring S2, and the nail rod is restored to its position in the center of the hammers by the spring cl.

It is evident that the amount of vibration of the table L, which carries the nail rod should be at all times equal, and to avoid any variation of this motion the following device is employed: The lever hf 2, through which motion is communicated to the lever L2, is pivoted at h', to the adjustable block O2, which is secured to the frame P, by screws e, passing through slots i, and is adjusted in position by the screw, t, and thus the wear of the pivots and bearing surfaces may be compensated by adjusting the block O2. In lieu of thus adjusting the position of the block O2, the lever L2, may be adjusted or any of the parts intermediate between it and the part which gives motion to the lever M2. The roller la, serves to prevent the friction of the slide U, in the bar Y, and the roller r, serves to insure the rising of this bar on each upward vibration of the arm S, should the spring B2, at :any time prove insuicient for the purpose.

I do not wish to limit myself to interrupting the motion of the horizontal hammers while the nail is being cut off as under certain circumstances the vertical pair may be held stationary or even all four of the hammers may be caught while the nail or other article is being cut off.

Thus far I have spoken of my improvements as particularly applicable to machines for making horse shoe nails but it is evident that they are equally applicable to machinery for forging a great variety of other articles, and I do not therefore limit my claims to machinery for any particular class of forging but intend to apply them to forging machinery wherever they may be applicable.

W'hat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is,

l. Hanging the springs which actuate the hammers at points independent of the pivots upon which the helves vibrate and so far removed therefrom that they shall hear upon the helves nearer to the hammer faces when the hammers are raised than at the instant when the blow is given as set forth for the purpose specified.

2. I claim the spring E, for actuating the hammers in combination with the set plates F, and screws 5, for regulating the tension of the same as set forth.

3. In combination with the hammers A, and side pieces H, I claim the adjusting checks I, operating in the manner described for the purpose specified.

4. And in combination with a mechanical cut off I claim holding the hammers out of action and without the reach of the cutters, while the nail is being cut off as set forth.

5. I claim pivoting the lever M2, to an adjustable block O2, for the purpose of regulating the motion of the nail rod as set forth.

s. s. PUTNAM.

Witnesses Trios. R. RoAoH, P. TEsoI-IEMCHER, 

